Company says fake accounts promoted Trump ally’s books while material tied to Bolsonaro spread divisive messagesFacebook has suspended numerous pages linked to the longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone as well as a network of accounts associated with the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, in separate moves to tackle disinformation and fake accounts on the platform.The company on Tuesday took down 50 personal and professional pages connected to Stone and his associates, including a prominent supporter of the rightwing Proud Boys group in Stone’s home state of Florida, saying they had used fake accounts and followers to promote Stone’s books and posts. Continue reading...
Civil rights groups say company did not commit to concrete plan to address hate speech and misinformationThe organizers behind a major advertiser boycott of Facebook have called a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg and other executives “disappointing”, saying the company failed to commit to concrete solutions for addressing hate speech and misinformation on the platform.Officials at Facebook, including Zuckerberg, the CEO, and Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, met with members of the coalition of civil rights groups over video chat for an hour on Tuesday to discuss the largest boycott in Facebook history, which has gained the support of more than 1,000 of its advertisers, including Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks. Continue reading...
Social media firms react to sweeping new national security legislation imposed by ChinaTikTok is to withdraw from Hong Kong app stores and Zoom will stop complying with city authorities’ data requests as technology companies react to the sweeping new national security laws imposed on the city by Beijing.Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Google and Telegram have already said they are “pausing” cooperation with requests for user information, putting pressure on Apple, which says it is “assessing” the new law, to do the same. Continue reading...
Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, lays out the movement’s goals as he prepares to meet with ZuckerbergFacebook is facing the biggest corporate boycott in the company’s history.Following a call from advocacy groups working under the umbrella Stop Hate for Profit, more than 300 advertisers have pledged not to spend money on the platform for the month of July. Continue reading...
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#55EBF)
Alleged campaign involved inviting UK figures to staged radio interviews and emailing them fake newsA peer has said he was not “putty in the hands of manipulators” in response to extraordinary claims he was among several public figures targeted by a fake PR campaign aimed at favourably boosting perceptions of the Chinese technology company Huawei.The alleged covert campaign involved inviting British politicians and industrialists to participate in staged radio interviews and emailing them fake news, according to a dossier partly produced by the firm co-founded by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele. Continue reading...
Liu Xiaoming also defends Beijing’s stance on Hong Kong, warning UK not to interfere in China’s affairsChina’s ambassador to the UK has said a ban on the Chinese tech company Huawei from playing a role in developing the UK’s 5G network would damage Chinese trust in the UK and its belief that the UK can run a foreign policy independent of the US.Speaking at a virtual press briefing in London, Liu Xiaoming warned Boris Johnson “you cannot have a golden era if you treat China as an enemy”. Continue reading...
Producer Yoshinori Kitase and co-director Naoki Hamaguchi describe the responsibilities and opportunities of recreating a stone-cold classicSquare Enix’s modern transformation of the 1997 classic Final Fantasy VII had players marvelling earlier this year. In addition to the graphical glow-up and modern-feeling changes to the game’s systems, Final Fantasy VII Remake added substance and emotional depth to much-loved characters such as Cloud, Tifa and Aerith, and left fans puzzling over the meanings of protagonist Cloud’s cryptic visions and the game’s thoroughly baffling ending.Related: Final Fantasy VII Remake review – a classic game reaches new heights Continue reading...
Jim Molan’s warning to Australian users comes after Nationals MP said app ‘used and abused’ by China’s Communist partyPopular video messaging app TikTok may be “a data collection service disguised as social media” that requires greater scrutiny by Australian users, the deputy chair of the Foreign Interference through Social Media inquiry has said.Liberal senator Jim Molan made the comments to Guardian Australia after Nationals MP George Christensen accused TikTok of being “used and abused” by the Chinese Communist party and called for it to be banned. The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has also urged caution on people handing over their data to the app. Continue reading...
Political advertising is banned from being broadcast on television or radio. Unless Facebook changes, it may be time to extend this prohibition to social media
Former MI6 chief said US sanctions on Huawei meant Chinese telecoms firm now posed security risks to UKBoris Johnson now has “sound technical reasons” to reverse his decision to allow the Chinese firm Huawei to play a role in building the UK’s 5G infrastructure, a former head of MI6 said on Sunday.Sir John Sawers said new US sanctions imposed on the company meant that allowing Huawei to expand its grip on the UK telecoms market posed security risks that did not apply when the government announced a compromise solution in January giving it up to 35% of the market. Continue reading...
GCHQ believed to be advising Boris Johnson that Chinese firm poses higher security riskThe UK is poised to end the use of Huawei technology in its 5G network as soon as this year because of security concerns, according to reports.The prime minister, Boris Johnson, is set to make a major policy change after GCHQ is believed to have reassessed the risks posed by the Chinese technology company, newspapers have said. Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#55BX0)
The lowdown on free apps, sensors you wear and a mat you slip under your mattressMonths in covd-19-induced lockdown have for many of us taken a toll on our sleep. From the late-night scrolling through news to the bizarre dreams and midnight wake-ups worrying, the stress of the coronavirus pandemic has been wreaking havoc on our collective sleeping habits.A recent survey found two in five people in the UK have experienced sleep disturbance. And with a good night’s rest considered an important part of overall health and wellbeing, you may have decided to start tracking yours. But where do you start? Here, with a quick list of good sleepmonitors from free apps to dedicated sleep sensors. Continue reading...
I found laptops and cameras in a lockdown clearout and am wondering if they can be put to good useEvery week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.During my lockdown clearout, I found lots of old electronics such as laptops and cameras. Is the tip the best option for them or can they be put to good use somehow? Continue reading...
A string of online services provide products similar to banks, but they may not be regulated in the same wayWhen the Financial Conduct Authority ordered the UK arm of payments firm Wirecard to freeze customer funds, hundreds of thousands of people who had probably never even heard of the company suddenly found they could not access their cash.Customers of several UK banking and payment services, including FairFX, Pockit, U Account and Anna Money, were told that their money was caught up in the regulator’s action against the firm, leaving some unable to buy food or pay bills. Continue reading...
Playwriting Australia’s three-night monologue marathon is an exploration of identity and brutal history in a time of concurrent apocalypsesPlaywriting Australia promoted its new suite of 50 monologues, livestreamed over three nights this July, as “a striking moment of national celebration and reflection”. But the stories are also suffused with grief and desperation, with anxiety and impatience. Addressed as “postcards” to the nation, the monologues serve as dispatches from the pandemic, reflecting on this peculiar moment while also evincing the digitised intimacy that has become one of its signatures.Thursday night’s program of 18 works includes some monologues that take the brief quite literally and others with a more oblique approach. Many monologues refer directly to lockdowns, and there are two in which the actor personifies the virus itself. Each playwright comes at their chosen topic in very different ways, but colonisation, racism and solidarity are recurring themes, along with a more general sense that the world is overdue for a reckoning. Continue reading...
Elon Musk’s company outstrips Toyota on stock market as demand for electric cars soarsTesla has overhauled Japanese rival Toyota to become the world’s most valuable automotive company.Despite never having made a profit, the billionaire Elon Musk’s electric car manufacturer has been tipped by some pundits to achieve a valuation of more than $1tn (£800bn) as demand for electric vehicles soars. Continue reading...
The social network bills itself as a ‘no censorship’ bastion – but it’s already had to remind users what is and isn’t allowedIn recent weeks, Donald Trump has started having his tweets factchecked and published with disclaimers when they contain misleading information. Katie Hopkins, the woman who once compared migrants to cockroaches and called for a “final solution” in relation to Muslims, has been banned from Twitter. And a subreddit called r/The_Donald has been banned after Reddit updated its hate speech guidelines – Reddit said in a statement that “mocking people with physical disabilities” and “describing a racial minority as sub-human and inferior to the racial majority” will not be allowed.Related: Twitter closes Graham Linehan account after trans comment Continue reading...
A pleasingly sceptical investigation into the innovations that could change the way we eat, have sex and dieIn a plain factory building in the San Marcos hills, north of San Diego in California, a technological revolution is under way. There, a team of AI experts are developing a new brand of woman that can smile, flutter her eyelids, make small-talk and remember the names of your siblings. Harmony – for that is her name – is a cut above your average sex doll. More than merely a masturbatory aid, she is a friend, lover and potential life partner.In Sex Robots & Vegan Meat, Jenny Kleeman examines the innovations that promise to change the way we love, eat, reproduce and die in the future. “What you are about to read is not science fiction,” she warns in her preface. “We are on the brink of an age when technology will redefine … the fundamental elements of our existence.” First on her list of apocalyptic developments is the production of AI-enabled, animatronic sexbots, which, depending on your viewpoint, provide warmth and comfort to socially isolated men or allow misogynist incels to live out their rape fantasies. Her research takes her to Abyss Creations, the throbbing heart of the industry where hyperrealistic dolls are created complete with custom-made hair, nipples and vaginal inserts. Continue reading...
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#557BS)
Culture secretary tells defence committee US sanctions likely to affect Chinese firm’s viabilityThe government may be close to announcing a U-turn on its controversial decision to allow Huawei to supply 5G technology, the culture secretary has hinted by saying US sanctions appear likely to affect the Chinese company.Oliver Dowden told members of a special defence select committee scrutinising Huawei that an emergency review ordered last month was close to running its course and that a change in policy would probably be necessary. Continue reading...
Six channels with supremacist content ‘repeatedly violated’ the site’s policy on hate speechYouTube has banned some of the video site’s most notorious far-right users, including former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, “alt-right” figurehead Richard Spencer and libertarian “race realist” Stefan Molyneux, joining a wave of social media sites taking action against hate speech.The company says the bans were handed down due to the creators’ repeated violation of YouTube’s policies against claiming that protected groups are “inferior”. Continue reading...
Immersive theatre company and augmented-reality game developer Niantic team up to explore ideas that fuse ‘physical and digital worlds’Immersive theatre company Punchdrunk, best known for its Macbeth production Sleep No More, and augmented-reality game developer Niantic, creator of augmented-reality smartphone games Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, are teaming up to create “interactive experiences”, the companies announced today.They are not working on extensions to existing games and productions – so don’t expect an interactive stage production of Pokémon Go, or a new video game adaptation of The Drowned Man. Instead the companies will be working on new projects, with aims to “reinvent storytelling for a 21st-century audience and further expand the horizon of interactive entertainment”. Continue reading...
Chancellor extends Future Fund to include firms that have moved their HQs abroadThe chancellor is expanding a £500m fund for UK startups hit by the coronavirus crisis, to ensure firms that shifted their headquarters abroad can still access the scheme.The Future Fund will now benefit companies that are seen as British in all but name, having moved their parent company to tap US investors or take advantage of so-called accelerator programmes. Accelerators like US-based Y Combinator often ask firms to set up a US entity in order to access financing, mentorships and expert networks overseas. Continue reading...
My standup career stalled when the pandemic arrived. But I get my kicks as a football manager on Twitch – and giving each player a storylineI began 2020 full of optimism, excited about returning to the Edinburgh fringe in August with a new show and feeling quite good about my standup. Then the pandemic arrived. As well as worrying about the health of family and friends, all my work disappeared overnight. The majority of my income is from performing standup in clubs around the country. On 1 April, it was announced that the Edinburgh fringe was cancelled. (Yes, they did it on April Fools’ Day.) Everything I had been carefully planning and working towards vanished.Lots of comedians perform live on social media. I’ve live-streamed on Facebook, which only reached my cousins and a bunch of strangers, and I tried Instagram Live, where people would join by accident and immediately leave. Since lockdown began, I’ve been asked to do a few online gigs. They’re quite nice but doing my standup material to complete silence is what happens in my anxiety dreams. Continue reading...
Twitch suspends president’s channel, leaving Facebook increasingly alone in its hands-off approachReddit and Twitch became the latest social media companies to ban or suspend pro-Donald Trump accounts over hate speech on Monday, further isolating Facebook in its reluctance to enforce content rules against the US president’s hateful and violent rhetoric.Reddit banned its largest pro-Trump message board (known as a subreddit), r/The_Donald, saying that it had “consistently hosted and upvoted more rule-breaking content than average” while refusing to cooperate with the company’s efforts to bring it into compliance. Continue reading...
Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short-form content platform has struggled to make an impact with bad reviews, lack of interest and legal issues swirlingNearly three months ago, in early April, the $1.75bn content experiment known as Quibi lurched from its rocky, much-maligned promotional campaign into full-scale launch. The service offered a tsunami of celebrity-fronted shows segmented into “quick bites” (hence, “qui-bi”) of 10 minutes or less – a Joe Jonas talkshow, a documentary on LeBron James’s I Promise school, a movie with Game of Thrones’s Sophie Turner surviving a plane crash, all straight to your phone. At the time, many of us wondered if Quibi could deliver on its central promise – to refashion the style of streaming into “snackable” bites – or if, teetering under the weight of its massive funding and true who’s who of talent as the world shut down, it would become shorthand for an expensive mistake.The service, the brainchild of the DreamWorks Animation co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and the former Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman – two billionaires deeply entrenched in the Hollywood and Silicon Valley establishment – was “either going to be a huge home run or a massive swing and a miss”, Michael Goodman, a media analyst with Strategy Analytics, told the Guardian. Given a string of bad news since its 6 April launch – missed targets, executive departures, Katzenberg singularly blaming the pandemic – and the sunset of its 90-day free trial with millions fewer subscribers than anticipated, the scales seemed decidedly tipped toward swing and miss. But while it’s too soon to declare the end of Quibi, it’s still worth asking: is the promise of the quick bite already over? And what went so wrong? Continue reading...
The bestselling sequel features a gay central character, challenging the last taboo for representation in gamingA withdrawn-looking 19-year-old leans against the bar in a rustic barn decorated with fairy lights, watching other people dance, taking nervous sips. She is looking at another young woman who is spinning around the room with a couple of different guys. “I hate these things,” says a friend standing next to her. “Tell me about it,” she replies.Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips Continue reading...
Company follows Unilever’s lead after platform announces shift in how it handles hate speechFacebook has announced changes to its policies around hate speech and voter suppression, but the measures have done little to quell the wave of companies pulling advertising from the platform amid backlash over how the company handles hate speech online.The CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, on Friday announced tweaks to a number of policies, hours after the multinational Unilever said it would pull its advertisements from the platform for the next six months. Continue reading...
Company is the biggest yet to join growing movement to boycott the social networkVerizon is pulling its advertising from Instagram and Facebook, the biggest name so far in a growing movement to boycott the social network for not doing enough to stop hate speech on its platforms.Related: Facebook faces advertiser revolt over failure to address hate speech Continue reading...
Beloved by Silicon Valley tycoons and tyranny-fearing libertarians, are cities atop the waves Earth’s next frontier?A white steel pole rises out of the sea off the Caribbean coast of Panama, poking above the waves like the funnel of a sunken steamship. Launched into the water last month, this is no shipwreck, but the base of what will soon become a floating home and, in the eyes of its makers, the first step towards building a brave new post-Covid-19 society, out on the open ocean.
With Sony and Microsoft about to embark on the first out-and-out console war for years, we break down how they weigh upLast week, in a livestream watched by millions, Sony revealed the first games coming to its PlayStation 5 console. Due out this winter, the machine will be competing with Microsoft’s Xbox Series X in the first major console war since 2013. But what will these new devices offer that Xbox One and PlayStation 4 do not – and will this finally get the kids off Fortnite? Continue reading...
Labeling of video made to look like a CNN report marks Twitter’s latest effort to label misinformation amplified by the US presidentTwitter has flagged a video tweeted by Donald Trump, which contained a fake CNN news segment about a “racist baby”, adding a warning label that the post contained manipulated media.The video, which had been doctored to make it appear as if it were a CNN broadcast, features two toddlers running and includes a fake graphic that reads “Terrified todler [sic] runs from racist baby”. The clip later accuses “fake news” of spreading misinformation. Continue reading...
Justice department says ‘recent actions’ by China towards its territory indicate landing station could expose US communications to spyingThe US government wants a high-capacity undersea data cable system proposed by Google and Facebook to bypass Hong Kong, citing potential national security concerns following China’s moves to exert greater control in the territory.The Pacific Light Cable Network, pending approval by the federal communications commission (FCC), should connect the US, Taiwan and the Philippines but not go through Hong Kong as planned, a US Justice Department committee has recommended. Continue reading...
Civil rights groups decried plan to exclude free calls from video calling app’s encryption servicesThe video conferencing platform Zoom announced on Wednesday it has reversed course and decided to provide end-to-end encryption to all customers, not just those who pay for a subscription.Related: Zoom admits cutting off activists' accounts in obedience to China Continue reading...
Automated moderation can be a blunt instrument – as users trying to post an image of Aboriginal men in chains discovered“It’s much easier to build an AI system that can detect a nipple than it is to determine what is linguistically hate speech.”The Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made that comment in 2018 when he was discussing how the company tackles content that is deemed inappropriate or, in Facebook terms, judged to be violating community standards. Continue reading...
Developer says releases including Horizon: Forbidden West and Marvel’s Spider-Man will be key to demonstrating the system’s capabilitiesHappily for anyone who struggles to summon much interest in raw tech specs, last week’s PlayStation 5 broadcast was heavy on games. Having seeded details about the console’s hardware and performance throughout the year, Sony opted to show what developers have been doing with that speed and power.Of the 28 games shown, nine were from Sony’s own studios, meaning they will be playable only on PS5. A further 14 were what’s known as timed exclusives, meaning that they’ll be available on PS5 first and may also launch on PC. Continue reading...
Six former senior employees set out to terrorize a couple for publishing an online newsletter unfavorable to the companySix former senior eBay employees have been charged with waging an extensive campaign to terrorize and intimidate the editor and publisher of an online newsletter with threats and disturbing deliveries to their home, including live spiders and cockroaches, federal authorities said on Monday.Executives were upset about the newsletter’s coverage, so their employees set out to ruin the lives of the couple who ran the website, sending a funeral wreath, bloody pig face Halloween mask and other alarming items to their home, authorities said. The employees also sent pornographic magazines with the husband’s name on it to their neighbor’s house and planned to break into the couple’s garage to install a GPS device on their car, officials said. Continue reading...
Snap says augmented reality will be foundation for next major shift in technologySnap, the company behind Snapchat, has revealed plans for a fully fledged digital platform taking on not only Facebook but also Google and Apple.The company is launching an app store, expanding its games platform and offering the facility for external developers to upload machine-learning models to build augmented reality experiences. It is allowing other apps to integrate its camera software for the first time, and incorporating businesses into its maps alongside users’ friends. Continue reading...
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